Fine catalogue
Phones and electronic devices
The prohibition covers electronic devices generally, not just phones. The tiers differ according to whether the offence endangered anyone or caused damage.
Full table
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| Offence | Standard rate | Points | Ban | Route | Cat. no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Using a mobile phone or electronic device while drivingBasic offence | 100 € | 1 | — | Bußgeld (administrative fine)Grade II | 246.1 |
| Using a mobile phone or electronic device while drivingwith endangerment | 150 € | 2 | 1 mo. | Bußgeld (administrative fine)Grade III | 246.2 |
| Using a mobile phone or electronic device while drivingwith property damage | 200 € | 2 | 1 mo. | Bußgeld (administrative fine)Grade III | 246.3 |
| Using a mobile phone or electronic device while drivingon a bicycle | 55 € | — | — | Verwarnungsgeld (caution payment)Grade I | 246.4 |
| Operating or carrying a ready-to-use speed-camera detector | 75 € | 1 | — | Bußgeld (administrative fine)Grade II | 247 |
- In force
- BKat-Beträge idF 1. BKatVÄndV (09.11.2021) — bis Inkrafttreten eKFV-ÄndV (01.03.2027)
- Source
- BKatV Anlage, Beträge idF 1. BKatVÄndV (BGBl. I 2021 Nr. 74); Punkte-Join FeV Anlage 13
Overview
The prohibition is about devices, not about phones
The rule your notice refers to is written for electronic devices generally — a phone, but equally a tablet, a camera, a media player, anything that has to be picked up or held to be operated. Reading the catalogue rows as "the phone fine" underestimates what the provision covers.
The tiers above turn on consequences rather than on how long you held the device. The reviewed data set carries 4 rows for this offence: the plain case at 100 €, two escalations where someone was endangered or something was damaged — both of which add a standard driving ban and a further point — and a separate row for the same conduct on a bicycle at 55 €, with no points at all. That zero is a confirmed absence from all three lists of the points annex, not a gap in our data.
Details
What counts as using it
This is the question every objection in this category turns on, and it is a legal question about a specific set of facts, so this site will not pretend to settle it. What we can say accurately is where the answer lives: in the road-traffic ordinance provision cited under these rows, together with the case law interpreting it. We do not reproduce the statutory wording here, because our research pass did not capture it as a verified quotation, and a paraphrase of a provision this contested would be worse than a pointer to it.
What the catalogue makes clear on its own is the shape of the rule: the offence is complete without any consequence at all, and consequences move it up a tier rather than into it.
Background
The detector row in the same family
Sitting next to the device rows is a separate offence with its own logic: operating, or carrying ready to use, equipment intended to detect or interfere with traffic monitoring. The standard rate is 75 €, with one point. It is worth reading precisely, because "ready to use" does work in that sentence that "using" does not — this is not only about a device that was switched on.
For a driver from outside Germany this row is the one most likely to be a surprise rather than a judgement call: an accessory that is entirely legal at home can be an offence here purely by being in the car in a usable state. It sits in this category because the catalogue groups it with the device rules, not because it has anything to do with telephoning.
Process
Why the tiers escalate the way they do
Read the rows above as one offence with three outcomes rather than three offences. The base row is complete on its own: nothing has to happen, nobody has to be put at risk, and no damage is needed. Endangerment moves it up, damage moves it up again, and both escalations add a standard driving ban to a fine that had none.
This shape matters practically, because it means the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive outcome in this category is not how long you looked at the screen. It is what happened while you did. A device offence that ends in a collision is not scored as a collision — it is scored as this offence, at its top tier.
Points behave the same way. The base row carries a point; the escalated rows carry more, and each of them is a register entry as long as the imposed amount clears the entry threshold. On the bicycle row there are no points at all, which we state as a confirmed absence: the row appears in none of the three lists of the points annex.
Key figures
What the table does not decide
Whether a particular movement of your hand was "use" of a device is the contested question in this category, and it is settled case by case on facts — where the device was, whether you picked it up, what you were doing with it. A table of amounts cannot answer it, and this site does not offer an opinion on your facts.
What we can tell you is that the amount in the row is a standard rate, that the register consequence depends on that amount clearing the entry threshold, and that the deadline on your notice runs regardless of how strong you believe your answer to be.
Next step
Points calculator
List your register entries and the calculator shows your active points on the reference date, the escalation rung and the expiry of each entry — with the two clocks kept strictly apart.
Related offences
Speeding
The bands of the speeding table for cars, split by inside and outside built-up areas. A motorway counts as outside — there is no separate motorway table.
Parking and stopping
Most parking offences carry no points — but not all of them. Where obstruction is involved, the row changes and so does the consequence.
Alcohol and drugs
Escalation follows the entries already on the register, not the reading that was measured. The zero-alcohol rule for new drivers has a row of its own.
FAQ